I. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an induction heating cooking apparatus that has been incorporated in a cabinet such as, for example, a kitchen.
II. Description of Related Art
The cooking apparatus of this kind has hitherto been provided with a cooling fan and a discharge fan so that suction and discharge air flow passages can be forcibly defined to achieve efficient cooling of the apparatus (See, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 11-354264 (JP '264)).
FIG. 7 illustrates the prior art induction heating cooking apparatus disclosed in JP '264. As shown in FIG. 7, an air intake fan 4 and a discharge fan 5 are provided within a main body 3. The main body includes a top plate 1 and an outer casing 2 integrated together, so as to forcibly define suction and discharge air flow passages, respectively, so that even though a pressure loss within the apparatus is substantial, air sucked through an air intake port 6 can be assuredly discharged through a discharge port 7 to thereby accomplish efficient cooling of the apparatus.
However, with the above-described prior art construction, problems have been found that air ready to be exhausted tends to be heated by a waste heat generated as a result of cooling a heat emitting area, including a heating chamber 8 and a heating coil (not shown) both within the main body 3, and a high temperate area including a shielding plate 9 and that since a drive motor for the discharge fan 5 is disposed in the discharge air flow passage and by the effect of the self-heating of the drive motor, particularly windings and bearings tend to be heated to such an extent as to make it difficult to suppress them to a temperature lower than the permissible temperature.